Guh, jury duty!

Since I moved away to college, this whole jury duty thing has been a huge pain in the ass, even more so than usual. I have left my permanent address as my mom's house just because I don't know how long I will be in the house I am in in Athens. I am also a bad citizen who didn't vote in the last election, hence I have not had my voter's registration card changed to Athens. So, I get a jury summons for the county that my mom lives in, which is a pain, but it just means I'll stay at my mothers for a week, no big deal. I call the jury hot line just to make sure that my living and going to school in Athens was okay, since I acknowledged that I had not had my voter's registration card or my drivers license changed. They tell me they deal with students all the time and as long as I didn't change either of those two things, I was still considered a resident of that county by the court. Okay, fine.

So, yesterday, I checked in with the jury overseer just to make doubly sure that my living full time in Athens was not a problem. Nope, you're good to go, they say. Fine. So, luckily the case I was signed onto yesterday got settled before jury selection, so all was good with the world. Today, I got called in again and got pulled into the jury room and questioned as a potential juror. So, of course, when I mention going to school in Athens, the judge asks if I live up there. I answer in the affirmative, and explain my whole voter's registration permanent address situation. Well, the judge tells me that as far as he is concerned, I am not a county resident, and he excuses me from the case. Okay, fine, I've wasted half a day, whatever. So, the bailiff takes me up front and tells the front staff the situation and that I should be take out of the pool for other cases. Well, the front staff get pissy with me and start telling me that since I haven't changed my permanent address that I am still to serve or else I need to get out there and change all of this stuff, blah, blah, blah. They acted as if I were some criminal trying to weasel my way out of jury duty. I just stood there, shrugging my shoulders, telling them that I had no control over what the judge had said.

Then, they start talking about deferring me and giving me another week in a few weeks. I looked at them dumbly. I came this week, I didn't lie or cheat, I merely answered questions honestly (as I was sworn to do) and they want to punish me by giving me another week of jury duty. What is another week going to do? I will still live in Athens. I will still not have bothered to change my drivers license since I want to keep my permanent address as my mothers house in case something happens, nor will I bother to change my voters registration simply because I don't want to. I expressed this to them. They then rudely told me that I would just have to suck it up and finish my week of jury duty. Exasperatedly, I told them that I didn't mind finishing up the week since I had made all my plans around this week anyway, and that once again, I was not trying to get out of jury duty, the judge had just kicked me off of this particular case. It wasn't my fault. So, with a disgruntled sigh they told me I had better call in and come in or else I would get another week.

I just wanted to slap them all. Perhaps the judges and front staff should have more conversation about what constitutes a country resident and what doesn't because I am going to be pissed if I get called in tomorrow, spend almost all day there, only to be kicked off again because the judge doesn't agree with the other staff on whether or not I am actually a resident. Grr.

Thanks for letting me vent.